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ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM)

  • Established in 2006
  • Meets annually
  • Last Meeting: 14th ADMM, Ha Noi, Viet Nam, October 2020

The ASEAN Security Community (ASC) Plan of Action, adopted at the 10th ASEAN Summit, stipulates that ASEAN shall work towards the convening of an annual ADMM.  Against this background, the Inaugural meeting of the ADMM was held in Kuala Lumpur on 9 May 2006.

The ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) is the highest defence consultative and cooperative mechanism in ASEAN. The ADMM aims to promote mutual trust and confidence through greater understanding of defence and security challenges as well as enhancement of transparency and openness.

The objectives of the ADMM, are as follows:

  • To promote regional peace and stability through dialogue and cooperation in defence and security;
  • To give guidance to existing senior defence and military officials dialogue and cooperation in the field of defence and security within ASEAN and between ASEAN and dialogue partners;
  • To promote mutual trust and confidence through greater understanding of defence and security challenges as well as enhancement of transparency and openness; and
  • To contribute to the establishment of an ASEAN Security Community (ASC) as stipulated in the Bali Concord II and to promote the implementation of the Vientiane Action Programme (VAP) on ASC.

Practical cooperation in the ASEAN defence sector has grown steadily since its inception in 2006 in the areas such as maritime security, counter-terrorism, peacekeeping operations, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, military medicine, and defence industry. In promoting confidence-building measures, the ADMM has also adopted the Guidelines for Air Military Encounters and the Guidelines for Maritime Interactions. The 15th ADMM will tentatively be held in 15 June 2021, in Brunei Darussalam.

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ADMM-Plus

  • Established in 2010
  • Meets annually since 2017
  • Last Meeting: 7th ADMM-Plus, Ha Noi, Viet Nam, 9-11 December 2020

The ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN and its eight Dialogue Partners, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, ROK, Russian Federation and the United States, to strengthen security and defence cooperation for peace, stability, and development in the region. The Inaugural ADMM-Plus was convened in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, on 12 October 2010.

The objectives of the ADMM-Plus, are as follows:

  • To benefit ASEAN member countries in building capacity to address shared security challenges, while cognisant of the differing capacities of various ASEAN countries;
  • To promote mutual trust and confidence between defence establishments through greater dialogue and transparency;
  • To enhance regional peace and stability through cooperation in defence and security, in view of the transnational security challenges the region faces;
  • To contribute to the realisation of an ASEAN Security Community which, as stipulated in the Bali Concord II, embodies ASEAN's aspiration to achieve peace, stability, democracy and prosperity in the region where ASEAN member countries live at peace with one another and with the world at large;
  • To facilitate the implementation of the Vientiane Action Programme, which calls for ASEAN to build a peaceful,secure and prosperous ASEAN, and to adopt greater outward-looking external relation strategies with our friends and Dialogue Partners.

The ADMM-Plus currently focuses on seven areas of practical cooperation, namely maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster management, peacekeeping operations,  military medicine, humanitarian mine action and cyber security. Experts Working Groups (EWGs) have been established to facilitate cooperation in these areas.

The 8th ADMM-Plus will tentatively be held in 16 June 2021, in Brunei Darussalam.